Teen Angst

I think I'm reaching the teen angst portion of tonight's show.  I have this theory about film production...or video production, or really any artistic creation. It's nothing new and not even terribly original, but hey, there we are.

Making a video is very much like raising a child.  Preproduction is all about youth and adolescence.  Sure there are growing pains, but there's such hope and energy, passion and excitement that sometimes it's all you can do to not smother the thing in love.  This is where you plan out it's life.  You want so much for the little guy, so you try and give it everything it needs. This means writing as much as possible, planning out shoots, finding a consistent visual style, a structure, scouting and maybe pre-interviews to figure out what your subjects are going to say and then how everything will fit together.

Then you reach production which is somewhere around puberty, suddenly this baby is ready to walk on it's own and you can only hope you've prepared it enough to propel itself under it's own energy.  Sure you're there to guide it, to feed it, to drive it to the mall and pay for craft services, but it has to have it's own motivation and desire. If you've been negligent in your love, you're certainly going to find out now.  Most of the time things start off strong.  The first day of shooting is always exciting, it's like the first day of school, everyone looks their best. They're running out to location with their beanies on, excited to play.  But that never lasts - it can't really.  Because this being has to find it's own feet, it has to be it's own person...and that's when you hit the Teen Angst years.

The Teen Angst generally happens around the middle of production or somewhere early on in post, mostly it just depends when you're actually looking at the footage and starting to put it together. For me, it's now (after only 3 days of shooting) this is because I'm staying late to look at clips Jeanne has put together or am working with Katrina to see the graphics she's created.  And I"m starting to doubt my vision.  Teen Angst is striking.  This happens because all your dreams and visions are for an organic life form that has it's own desires and wishes.  You wanted a lawyer and you're getting an artist... or vice-versa. The trick is, to be okay with what it's becoming, but still be able to influence it's decisions. You're not giving up control-you can't and this teen doesn't want you to. But you have to be okay with your vision changing somewhat.  You have to allow it to become what it's going to become and be okay with the fact that you can't exert as much influence as  you did before.

I had certain thoughts about how the middle sections should go. After shooting 2 interviews and seeing Jeanne try to put them together, I'm worried that we can't get across the whole concept in the 15 seconds I've given to each person. But if we can't then we have to pull from the early 10 second montage 'cause I've only alotted 40 seconds for each of the 5 sections....and this can't go over 5 minutes.  At times, production is all about numbers: how many setups have we shot; how long is the crew on the clock; how many bagels are left on the table.

So the trick is to be aware of the teen angst and to not be reactive.  I'm going to adjust my interview style a little bit and perhaps put the questions that really matter all together.  The individual sections are changing somewhat as well.  The 15seconds were people explaining what they're working on and why it's awesome. But I think it has to be what the problem is and why it's important, with the implication of "that's why I'm working on it"  Or something.  I don't know, I'm going to have to think on that.

The video is being played in St. Louis 3 weeks from today. We got the job 2 weeks ago, so I think we've come quite a ways in a couple weeks.  I'm just trying to ignore the pressure from on high and trusting that I've given this thing enough love that it can stand on it's own knowing that I and the rest of our video family is going to be pushing it the rest of the way.

We'll see what I think tomorrow.

And then, at the end of the day when I was in the midst of my teen-angstyness, I found this cool little short:

PYRATS from zloe_zlo on Vimeo.

It was made back in 2006 by animation students at a school I can't pronounce. Here's the website for the film.  Overall, it's a whole lot of fun. It well paced, exciting, visually dynamic, tells a story and  even worked in a Wilhelm Scream. What's not to love?